Gifts from a Friend

These 'pothies' are so warm and cosy.  They were given to me by a friend who bought them at a local craft fair, but they were too small for her.  It's always useful to be slightly smaller than your friend!

I have also been given some back copies of this fabulous magazine called Selvedge - it covers all things textile and is full of advice, information, interviews, projects, you name it, it's in here.  Here are a few pages:

Skirt Bag

I had found a brown suede mini skirt in the charity shop sometime last year and instantly thought "that would make a wonderful bag".  However, it has taken some months to actually get around to cutting into it.  When I eventually did, it was remarkably quick and easy to do -  I removed the zip and sewed up the gap, then I cut two strips from around the bottom edge to make handles.  These strips were folded and sewn along the long edges and then sewn into position on the top edge.  The bottom edges were then sewn together and a lining added.

Unfortunately, when sewing the lining fabric to the top edge of the suede there was quite a bit of movement and I wasn't happy with the result.  I didn't want to unpick it because the suede would have been full of tiny holes where the needle went through.  So, whilst rummaging in my box I came across this length of braid that was a good co-ordinating mix of colours and stitched that over the offending stitching.  Serendipity wouldn't you say? 

Little Painted Cupboards

These two small cupboards were looking rather tired and shabby, so I thought they would be happier with a new coat of paint.  I had bought one of them at a junk shop about 25 years ago and the other one was left in a house we bought 10 years ago.  Over the years they have gone from white to pale pink to dark green and then lastly to cream.  I bought a tester pot from Farow and Ball in a lovely soft pale green called Mizzle which was just enough to give them two coats each.

This is the finished result - although I must say the photo doesn't make it look much different from the original colour, I can assure you that it is beautiful!  Must remember to screw the handle back in place.  Now what else can I paint?  It's a good job that it was only a small pot otherwise all our furniture would be pale green by now!

Old Vehicles

I came across some wonderful fabric that had all sorts of different vehicles printed over it.  It was nice and symmetrical and so therefore I could cut it up into good sized rectangles to make lots of  zipped purses.

 I've shown the Mini, Fiat 500 and VW Camper Van here as they're my favourites.

I put some of the purses into my Etsy and Folksy shops.  I think they would be perfect for keeping lots of useful bits and pieces together in the glovebox of your car - tissues, comb, notebook, pencil and of course a bar of emergency chocolate!

The Well Dressed Bear

Let me introduce you to my lifetime friend - Jeremy James

This is me holding him outside our house in 1971 when we were 7 years old. 

Two years later (still standing by the same wall, but I assure you I did move inbetween!)
Note how he's now wearing a dress! (it was a pale pink crimpoline with white lace trim).  Despite his very obvious male name my mum and my grandma insisted on knitting and sewing beautiful dresses for him.  His wardrobe became the envy of many teddy bears in the village.
However, as the years passed by his wardbrobe was somehow lost and so he is now a 'bare bear' again.

But not for long, because whilst browsing through the book section in the charity shop the other day I came across this wonderful book full of patterns to make 10 outfits for bears.  Well, I couldn't leave it there, so for £2 I became the proud owner of  'The Well Dressed Bear' book.  How exciting!!

Now all I need to do is find the time to make a rather dapper wardrobe for my Jeremy James.

Beautiful Skies

This is the sunset viewed from one of our favourite villages - Silverdale.  What a perfect name for such a perfect spot.  There's a circular walk which takes us across fields, through woodland, along the coast and then back up into the village.  It's about 10 miles from where we live - just a nice little trip out!

This was taken a couple of evenings ago outside our house.  The photo doesn't really do it justice but it was very atmospheric - the moon lit up the mottled clouds in a particularly unusual way.

And because I like to do things in three's I had to include this wonderful photo that my daughter took on the Isle of Skye - I think it should be included on a calendar, it's just amazing isn't it?

Lucky Me

I was very lucky this week to be given a large box full of fabric remnants - there's quite a mixture of sizes and textures which vary from velvets to silks to linens and cottons.  I'm still at the stage of sorting through them and putting them into various categories such as tote bag size, purse size, linings etc.  I'll then incorporate them into my existing shelves and pick out some pieces for new projects.

This piece is rather fun isn't it?  There are about 8 panels like this so I'm thinking Laundry bags or Shopping bags!

I'm not quite sure what to do with these pieces yet.  They're made from woven ribbon and they are extremely beautiful - maybe Evening bags.

Thrifty New Clothes

 

This is my latest thrifty new outfit.  I used the patterns from my favourite sewing book - these patterns fit so well and need no adjusting for me whatsoever, which means I can just cut things out, sew them up and hey presto! I know that they will fit me.  It's nice when you find something that makes life easier and saves time.

I had bought a fat quarter of this fabric from our local patchwork shop just before Christmas and I was going to make some little hearts from it to hang in the kitchen, however, that wasn't done so as I looked at it I thought 'a little top would be rather nice', so I bought another half a metre and managed to just squeeze it out.  You can see where I've joined the bodice to make a sort of yoke effect - it adds a bit of interest and didn't waste as much fabric as those bits were cut from the left overs around the sleeve head - cunning!  I can pop a black long sleeve T shirt underneath in the winter or wear it just as it is in the warmer months.

The skirt was made from a remnant of velvet that I picked up for £1 last year.  It's what I like to call my 'mouse' skirt, as when you touch it, it feels as soft as a mouse's back, and of course it's the same colour!  The yoke was lined with another bargain piece of fabric - it's a Liberty print cotton lawn which was really cheap because it had a printing defect, but that doesn't matter to me as it's beautifully soft and lovely to sew with.  I'm very happy with the results!

Posh New Roof

"What" you may ask "are these?"  Well, I'll tell you - they're cedar shingles that we recently got from someone who had them left over from a job.  They're used for roofing and are attached in an 'overlapping' fashion like slates to create a waterproof roof!

As you can see they come in all sorts of different widths and they have to be positioned so that there is a good overlap between the vertical edges.  I had so much fun arranging them - one horizontal layer at a time - and then fastening them down with 2 copper nails per shingle (that's 300 nails)! They are approx 18" long and each row has to be overlapped so that the nails are covered by 2 more rows, therefore leaving about 6" showing.  There's an excellent video on youtube which shows how the experts do it.

Oh, I forgot to tell you - they were used for the 'luxury' roof of my latest wood store.  I think that's 3 different versions we've created now.  You can never store too much wood!!